PLANS to alleviate the town centre’s parking woes while the train station car park is closed are being put into action.
Around 200 spaces will be lost while the car park is closed to make way for a new upper deck, meaning motorists will be forced to look elsewhere.
Wokingham Borough Council (WBC) has put plans to regenerate Carnival Pool’s car park on hold until June, while additional spaces will be temporarily created at the Paddocks and Wellington Road car parks.
The council also hopes to temporarily use the former tennis and basketball courts on Elms Field for council staff parking. Access to the temporary car park on the courts would be via the Paddocks, but for this to work four trees were due to be removed by the end of February to avoid the nesting season.
Cllr John Kaiser, WBC’s executive member for planning and highways said: “We tried but our discussions with South West Trains about the timing of their work and providing alternative facilities for their customers were sadly unsuccessful.
“Around 200 of their customers will be affected by the station car park closing. So we’re trying to minimise this impact on the town, as quickly and simply as we can. The four trees being felled have been surveyed and aren’t high quality.
“Car parks in the south of the town are already well used in the week; particularly at peak times. We hope some of South West Trains’ customers will find alternative ways to get to Wokingham Station or use other stations where there’s parking space, such as Bracknell.
“For people travelling into Reading our Mereoak Park and Ride would be very useful.”
South West Trains says it plans to close the main car park at Wokingham Station on March 28. Most of the smaller car park will stay open but will be dedicated to season ticket parking holders only.
